What is Tennis All About?

As I already have said in my posts tennis is very complex sport for many reasons, but because of that is very important to recognize what makes its essence.

The essence is what is common to all people who play tennis as it should be played.

The essence of tennis is what all good coaches would agree upon unanimously.

The essence of tennis is what you have to acquire very early to feel natural, to become part of you

If you do not have, you feel a big whole

We would all agree with above said things, but in spite of that we would define essence quite differently.Why is that? Because tennis is very complex , and it is difficult to understand what is all about.

Tennis is a sport played between two players (singles) or between two teams of two players each (doubles). Each player uses a strung racquet to strike a hollow rubber ball covered with felt (most of the time Optic Yellow)[1] over a net into the opponent's court. -- Wikipedia

Contact point

As I already have said in my posts tennis is very complex sport for many reasons, but because of that is very important to recognize what makes its essence.

The essence is what is common to all people who play tennis as it should be played.

The essence of tennis is what all good coaches would agree upon unanimously.

The essence of tennis is what you have to acquire very early to feel natural, to become part of you

If you do not have, you feel a big whole

We would all agree with above said things, but in spite of that we would define essence quite differently.Why is that? Because tennis is very complex , and it is difficult to understand what is all about.

It is all about the CONTACT POINT and when you are doing this right it is like meditation. You are also moving your body without thought and, releasing all your agression into the ball! When you are playing well win or lose you still feel great

What is tennis all about or what is the essence of tennis is philosophical as well as practical question at the same time, but it is sina qua non if one wants to be a good tennis coach.

This is fine line which differs a good coach, from someone calling himself a coach.As is obvious and at the same time difficult to understand and define the essence of tennis so is obvious and difficult to differ right away good coach from a coach.Time is component which will show difference, but than is far too late.Players who were coached by good coaches can continue to make progress throughtout their playing career while the ones who were coached by oneselves who call themselves coaches they cannot.The difference between the two is that former understand the essence of tennis, and latter do not.This is so significant difference that cannot be bridged.

The difference between a good tennis coach, and a coach can be compared by two parallel lines;the lines keep the same distance from each other, but they never meet.So huge is difference between good tennis coach and a tennis coach.One understands the essence of tennis the other does not;one sends a player in right direction, and the other stops him in his track

I will illustrate what I am talking about.
In the winter of 1991/992 I was not available, and my daughter (8/9 years old) during this time was taking 2-3 times per week group lessons by someone else.At the time Jim Courier was very popular.He played forehand with exaggerated use of arm(wrist).The coaches who coached my daughter at that time used him as model how to play forehand, but they really could not see what was going on;all they saw is exaggerated use of arm so they concluded that arm is most important in executing forehand stroke.What they saw, they taught.After six month when I was back my daughter played forehand by just using her arm.Very wrong.Ten and more years I tried to correct it, and it would always come back under pressure.
This example clearly illustrates what unreparable harm can be done by a tennis coach to a tennis player when he does not understand the essence of tennis.

In the country where I live national tennis federation exists but does nothing for national tennis.Whole burden is on parents.They do tremendous job, but as quality of tennis improves (sport science) they loose the battle they should not fight alone in the first place and as such have no chance to win.It is waste of money, energy and time.

Even, parents of players who are sure to know enough about tennis, this is just illusion they live in.I will give an example.Once , father (coach) of promising girl (he though so, but with his coaching she had no chance) who was volleyball trainer when I asked how her daughter serves, he said that she serves like Boris Becker.When I asked that he explains me what he means, he said that she jumps during a serve like Boris Becker does.At that moment I was aware that he knows nothing about tennis.He could not understand the essence of tennis serve, and normally he could not teach it.He saw one thing, and completely another thing was going on.He did not understand that Boris Becker does not jump, but that his lift off the ground is product of energy produced by body mechanics during serving motion.

There are so many examples to support the fact that very few people (tennis coaches included) understand what is tennis all about that is the essence of tennis.One who does not this cannot teach someone sound stroke mechanics.

I will give another example.One father was very devoted to tennis, but the problem is that he did not have knowledge to control this process, and the coach of his daughter would just sell him unbelievable stuff.Every time this father came to a tournament would praise how his daughter learned something new that is that she plays one of the strokes as a famous professional tennis player.Once he told me that her daughter serves like Goran Ivanisevic with exception that she is right - handed compared to Goran who is left handed.I asked him how is that, and he showed me that she supinatates her hand as Goran while being in the basic stance for serve.

From this example one can conclude that this father (as well as his daughter&#168;s coach) know nothing about the essence of tennis.He notices individual pecularities which are of no importance to the stroke mechanics.I even advice my students that they do not imitate these pecularities and that everything is as simple as possible (in this case racket at hip height pointed toward service field one is going to serve with one hand on the racket handle and the other on racket throat with both arms being close to the body).The reason for that is that a person has to concentrate on implementation of main parts of the stroke instead to focus on pecularities.Once, one has control of stroke mechanics, he will add something of his own.Before that is detrimental to process of learning and practicing.

To be honest, it doesn't matter how you play. As long as you play, you're good to go. The best thing we can have in this sport is popularity and the more appreciation to the sport the better. If we can only have a spot on ESPN, not ESPN2...lol, that day may never come.
Same goes for football (soccer).

For me, tennis is a sport games focus on stamina, strength, agility, intelligence, strategies and more.
In other benefits, it bring joys and also maintain good relationship among all the tennis players.

It is all about the CONTACT POINT and when you are doing this right it is like meditation. You are also moving your body without thought and, releasing all your agression into the ball! When you are playing well win or lose you still feel great

My intention is to define the essence of tennis so that is umnistakenly understood what is tennis all about.Haretrigger has very good point, but it is too abstract, and it does not explain how to achieve it so is like island in an ocean.This definition is too narrow sided so one would conclude that if this condition is met, everything else will fall in place by itself what is very untrue.

I would like to reach broader definition, because tennis is made of complex parts which as unity can make definition of essence of tennis.

Besides, to be more understandble, I will define in general what each of these parts consist of.

Now, inspired by a post about match statistics I will say few words about that which is also consistent part of the definition, although it is just one detail.

On one tournament to have a better view of my player performance I led statistics of unforced errors, forced errors, and winners of my player and her opponent.What I concluded is that one first has to cut down on unforced errors, then increase forced errors of opponent, and at the end hit winners.Hitting winners looks spectacular, but point is point however one wins it so is better to win it with less risk (cut down on own unforced errors, and increase forced errors of opponent).

So, the essence of tennis is to win a point with less as possible risk involved.This must be somehow implied in the definition what is the essence of tennis.

The essence of tennis is when one understands how actions taken will reflect on the player&#168;s performance.Then one as a coach can control the process of developing tennis player up to his/her talent what is coach&#168;s primary task.